For Sale!

Our house is officially for sale! This is a very exciting and scary time for us. Let me start by saying that we LOVE our house! It makes me nervous to know that people are going to walk through my home and possibly not love it like I do. Taking care of this home has been my "job" for the last 5 and 1/2 years (and obviously caring for the kids) but they notion of people not thinking I have done a good job is horrifying to me. I realize it ridiculous but it's how I feel. With that said here is a tour of our home. We hope to find an old picture of the house in which there is not a mountain of snow in front. We are on 1/2 acre (.49 to be exact) and the house is a little over 1600 sq. ft. We have 4 bedrooms and 1 1/2 baths.
Living room
Living room 2
Kitchen (with new countertops, sink, faucet, and stove)
Breakfast area
Dining room
Master bedroom
Guest bedroom
samuel's room
Avery's room
Any takers??? It is listed at 129,900.

The best family present EVER!

Uncle Ryan and Auntie Jen are officially the Christmas heros. Ryan apparently stalked Best Buy until they finally sold him a highly sought after Wii system for the Carriers of Central New York. Here we are after opening our prized gift but as you can probably tell Mom and Dad are very happy and the kids....not so much. After a couple more days of Christmas mayhem we plugged her in to Grandpa's TV. The adults were first to try it out. Here's Gavin playing golf.

Gavin's sister Aimee joined in to play some bowling. She was quite good but we found out that she had the upper hand by taking bowling in college.
The kids soon decided to give this Christmas present a try. Avery is now an expert bowler and tennis player.
Samuel is also great at bowling and is a boxing champ.
Speaking of boxing champs....I also have a crown in that department (or is it a really big belt?). Gavin and I played for the first time together the other night and I knocked him out not one but two times. He has practiced a lot since then so I refuse to play him so I can hold on to my undefeated status.
This has, by far, been the most used Christmas present in our house. We all love it. In fact, today after church Samuel wanted everyone to go home so we could all bowl together instead of going out to lunch. Kuddos to you Uncle Ryan and Auntie Jen!!!

Our tiny dancer

Our little Avery is currently in her 4th year of dance. Now that she is in the "big girl" class she had a little Christmas show at the studio. They only practiced for 5 weeks and I think did quite well. Here is a video of her Jazz dance. She also had a ballet routine. She is such an angel!!!

Christmas card rejects!

First, I must apologize to all of my faithful readers for not posting anything new in weeks. Hopefully you haven't given up on me! The Christmas Season has kept me otherwise occupied. I couldn't decide what to post about so as I looked at my camera to see what pictures were on it I figured I'd go with our Christmas card reject pictures.

Last Tuesday Gavin came home to find his wife and 2 children decked out in our holiday best and our tripod was set up in the living room. We took about 2o different pictures, uploaded our favorite to Walmart.com, picked them up an hour later, addressed them, and sent them out Wednesday morning. Nothing like a deadline to get you motivated.

Here's our first attempt at a family Totem Pole.One of just the kiddos!

Our 2nd attempt at a family Totem Pole. Cute picture but crooked and too much window, not enough tree.
Crooked and Samuel is in a weird smile phase of life.
I don't know why this one didn't make the cut. I think we look great!

Merry Christmas from the Family!

A new chapter...

As many of you already know, the Carrier family is relocating to the Houston area. We are excited to begin this new chapter of our lives and sad to say goodbye to so many people and a church we love. We will be going to an area called The Woodlands and Gavin will be working at Faith Bible Church as a Small Groups Pastor.

It is a beautiful area! The one thing that Gavin didn't like from his time in Texas was the lack of trees. The Woodlands is truly the exception. In fact, you can't find anything because it is all hidden behind trees. There is a lovely waterway that goes by the mall and ends about a mile and a half later at a hotel. Here is one of the water taxis that takes you from one end to the other.
Yes, we will be safe in such an area. There are plenty of police on horseback to protect us on any shopping excursions we may venture out on.
Needless to say, we would like everyone to visit us! We are sad to report we won't be posting anymore sledding pictures after March but I'm sure they will be replaced by pictures of the kids playing in the sand. On that note, does anyone want to buy a lovely 4 bedroom on a half acre in a cul-de-sac? I know of one if you're interested!

It's official.....Winter has come

Winter has definitely shown up in upstate New York. We got a few inches earlier last week but on Friday night we got close to a foot of snow! We were left with only one option for Saturday......Sledding!!!


We usually go to a place called Strawberry Hill but it can get a bit crowded and it is pretty steep for Avery and Samuel. Don't get me wrong, they have both done it before, but they don't like it anymore after they wipe out. It's a pretty long fall to the bottom of the hill!
This year we went a different route! Our friends Mike and Jenny invited us to come sledding at their house. They have a great hill and Avery even got to sled with their 1 1/2 year old Evelyn.
We had a couple of trails going (always being careful not to slam into their house at the bottom). The kids (and adults) had a wonderful time!I took a moment to relax before it was all done!

A Poll...Brought to you by Mr. Carrier

Tonight is the CMA awards on NBC and this time of year always brings a few comments about me looking like Miranda Lambert. I guess it would be appropriate to say she looks like me because I am older. Regardless, when she appeared on the scene back in her Nashville Star days (around 2002) I had a handful of people tell me we looked alike (this was back in Texas). A few years and a cross country move later folks told me the same thing. My husband, Gavin, has always agreed. One night, in fact, he was flipping channels and saw Miranda on Austin City Limits. He watched the whole time in amazement and kept telling me, "make this face, say that, etc." I believe my response was to fall asleep next to him on the couch.
So here's the question.....Do you think I look like her? Leave your comments and settle this once and for all. I can kind of see it (when you look past the blonde hair and blue eyes) but to me it is more obvious watching her live. So if you feel so compelled you can Youtube her.
I'll post the results when I get enough comments!